Potential
by archergwen
Summary: Inspired by thingsaboutslytherins on tumblr. An honest Slytherin catches the eye of a Hufflepuff though a lack of effort on her part.


She moved through the halls like a ghost. Pale from so little time in the sun – likely due to the dimly-lit dungeons – she still fit in the shadows as if they were a well-work glove tailored just for her.

She walked alone most of the time the young Hufflepuff saw her, a solitary flash of green moving at the sides in self-exile encouraged by the red around her.

He started looking for her more often when he could, but he only saw her in at the edges. She was obviously old enough of a student to be finished with the outdoors classes. She didn't attend the Slytherin-Hufflepuff Quidditch match. He rarely saw her at dinner. When she did come to meals, she ate little. This observation led to one of the seventh and sixth-year Slytherins bundling up food, large amounts in fact, and slinking off with their prizes divided into individual meals.

The Hufflepuff knew how to get to the Slytherin dormitory – conversations with house elves will provide many benefits – but instead he settled for gathering a few cookies and wrapping them in the napkin a kindly house elf had enchanted his first year to keep its contents warm perpetually.

The small bundle of cookies rested in the pocket of his robes for an entire day before he had his chance. She was headed for the Grand Staircase and he was one floor above her. Wrapping his hand around the bundle, he hurried in a straight line towards.

Just when he was within earshot – and realized he didn't know her name – three of her housemates appeared as if from thin air at her sides, surrounding her comfortably. The three new Slytherins moved easily with her up the stairs, drawing the first smile from her he had seen.

Dumbstruck, he watched with cookies in hand as the group approached and then passed him, the nearest Slytherin to him the only one to acknowledge his existence. His eyes were alight with fury, as if he wished the Killing Curse could be cast through one's gaze. The Hufflepuff stepped backwards in shock, and the moment was broken. The Slytherin seventh year's face returned to one of mild interest as he focused back on the younger housemate at his side.

It was two days before he saw her again, and he had eaten the original cookies so fresh ones were in his pocket.

She ducked off the main path, headed down a hallway on her own. Innocently, the Hufflepuff followed her and drew the bundle of cookies from his pocket.

The moment isolation in the hallway settled over the two students, she wheeled about with her wand drawn, though pointed at his feet. "Why are you following me?" Processing what was going on, the Hufflepuff raised his hands, wadded napkin now visible. "Again, why are you following me? I keep see you hanging around in the corner of my eye, and you're always watching. Why?"

In a moment of brilliance, he extended the hand with the bundle in it. "I wanted to give you these cookies, fresh from the kitchen. You looked a little down all by yourself most of the time. You should know someone sees and thinks of you."

She tucked her wand away. "Who says I don't want to be alone?"

"No one wants to be alone. Not even the aloof Slytherins."

She paused, contemplating, before reaching out and snatching the cookies from his hand. "What kind are they," she asked while unwrapping them.

"Chocolate. The best kind for fighting off sadness."

Mouth full of cookie, she retorted, "Who says I'm sad?"

"You do. You do hardly anything, and never smile when you're off on the edges by yourself. In retrospect, it is a little creepy that I've been watching you for two weeks now, but I've only seen you smile when you walked with three older housemates of yours."

"For the record, it has been over two weeks since you started before the Quidditch match. Anyways, it's no big deal. Everyone feels sad. I'll get over it by myself, thank you. I don't need some committee helping me as if I wasn't smart enough or strong enough to fix my own problems myself."

He shrugged casually, digging his hands into his pockets. "I don't know, maybe it's the stronger thing to do to ask for help, since you have to sacrifice pride and all."

"Easy for you to say. The whole school would help you." Her eyes flicked to his yellow tie.

He coughed purposefully. She immediately blushed and shoved more of the cookie into her mouth. "So what's this committee you mentioned?"

"Oh, the sixth-year and seventh-year Slytherins have a small group that goes around and takes care of housemates that have depression and stuff like that. They only nominated for the group if they've dealt with such problems, so I'll probably be nominated if I ask for help. They bring meals to kids that will only leave their rooms for class, sit suicide watch, defend them from bullying on the part of other houses, that sort of thing."

"So that's why you got mobbed when I tried to give you cookies the first time."

"Yep. They saw you headed for lonely me – I guess I did look like a pretty good target – and assumed the worst. To be fair, you're kinda tall and built, so you look the type. You know, you could cosplay King Arthur really easily."

His head titled. "Cosplay?"

"Yeah, it's this muggle thing I read about on the Internet. It's actually pretty cool. There are amazing wizard possibilities if we could get it to catch on in magical society. Wait, do you even know what Internet is?"

"It's that giant web that transmits information to muggles, right?"

"That's kind of a decent explanation of it. Except it's invisible, like radio waves generally, or underground like telephone or electricity lines. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"A Slytherin knows more about muggles and muggle tools that I do."

She shrugged. "I pay attention in class. Besides, not all of us are purebloods. It hasn't been that exclusive since Salazar died. But seriously, if any Houses were going to bring wi-fi to this castle, it was going to be Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Who else would have the know-how and ambition to bring YouTube to Hogwarts? Oh right, you don't know about YouTube. Well, come on, follow me. You can borrow my computer. Ravenclaw Tower and our dungeons are the only place you can get a signal without frying your device in magic anyway."

"You haven't shared this with the other Houses?"

She moved past him, dragging him along after her. "Share? Please. The Gryffindors, animosity or not, would immediately use it to pull pranks on a magnificent scale; I don't want to imagine what a Weasley would do with a Vine account. The Hufflepuffs simply haven't asked, content to drop by either dormitory if they need to. Plus, we're trying to keep this on the down-low before the Headmistress figures out what fanfiction is. I mean, we've got loads of research on how to break through even wizard imposed firewalls, but we don't want to have to use them."

"You can stop the Internet with fire?"

She paused a few steps below him on their way down stairs and looked up with disbelief on her face. "Boy, I have got a lot to work with on you. Saddle up, Pony Boy. We're gonna make you golden." She continued her way down.

"That doesn't even make sense!"


End file.
